The U.S. Biodiesel Industry Wants You to Know: Today Is National Biodiesel Day
By Scott Doggett March 18, 2010
By Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor
Unsatisfied with the existence of an International Biodiesel Day, held every August 10, the American biodiesel industry chose today - March 18 - as the day it would like everyone to celebrate its National Biodiesel Day.
For this is the day that Rudolf Diesel (1858-1913) would celebrate his birthday if he were still alive. Rapper Queen Latifah, novelist John Updike, speed skater Bonnie Blair, singer Charlie Pride and President Grover Cleveland share the birthdate and have nothing to do with biodiesel.
As you'll recall, Diesel was born in Paris, the second of three children to Theodor and Elise Diesel. He studied engineering and eventually assisted one of his former professors, Carl von Linde, with the design and construction of a modern refrigeration and ice plant.
Diesel later sought to develop a fuel-efficient steam engine using ammonia vapor. The machine exploded during tests with almost fatal consequences. Diesel would thereafter suffer from ill health and eyesight problems.
But his injuries didn't keep the inventor from inventing. Soon after Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz invented the automobile in 1887, Diesel published a treatise that formed the basis for his work on, and invention of, the engine that would forever bear his name.
In his engine, fuel was injected at the end of compression and ignited by the high temperature resulting from compression. In 1893, he published a book titled "Theory and Design of a Rational Thermal Engine to Replace the Steam Engine and the Combustion Engines Known Today" and later managed to build a working engine according to the work.
That engine and all of its successors we know as diesel engines. Diesel obtained patents for them in Germany, the U.S. and other countries, and received the recognition he deserved. But there would be no sailing peacefully into the sunset for Rudolf Diesel.
On the night of Sept. 29, 1913, Diesel boarded the post office steamer Dresden in Antwerp on his way to a meeting of the Consolidated Diesel Manufacturing company in London. He ate on board the ship and retired to his cabin. He was never seen alive again.
Ten days later, Dutch sailers came upon a dead man floating in the sea. The body was so decomposed the crew elected to take his pill case, wallet, pocket knife and eyeglass case from his clothes and return the corpse to the sea.
The items were later identified by Rudolf's son, Eugen Diesel, as belonging to his father. The circumstances surrounding the death of Rudolf Diesel remain a mystery.
What does all this have to do with biodiesel?
Diesel was interested in using vegetable oil as fuel. Indeed, his engines initially ran on peanut oil. While the primary source of fuel for diesel engines today is an oil byproduct derived from petroleum, many companies are developing fuels derived from vegetable oils and animal fats.
In a statement issued today by the National Biodiesel Board, the industry noted that Diesel originally designed his engine to run on peanut oil and only later did petroleum become the fuel standard for his invention, which is true. The statement continues:
"In a 1912 speech, Diesel said 'the use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time.' "
As the U.S. biodiesel industry noted in the statement, it is playing a constructive role in helping to promote energy independence. "The 500 million gallons of fuel the U.S. biodiesel industry produced in 2007 offset nearly 12 million barrels of oil," it said.
Oddly, the National Biodiesel Board didn't mention that 2008 was an even better year for the American biodiesel industry, with the U.S. producing 700 million gallons of biodiesel that year.
But production tanked last year with the Jan. 1, 2010, expiration of a federal tax credit that provided makers of biodiesel $1 for every gallon.
Biodiesel's 2009 woes came on top of a year of problems for the fledgling biofuel industry - an irony given the push to cut down on greenhouse gases and ease the nation's need for foreign oil. A key driver for the alternative fuel - the high cost of oil - disappeared as diesel prices dropped 18 percent since the beginning of the recession.
And in March of last year the European Union placed import-killing tariffs on biodiesel and other biofuels. It was a huge hit for U.S. biofuel makers, with Europe taking 95 percent of all global exports.
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